Are you looking to move to Orlando? One word: Don't! (Winter Park: neighborhoods, to buy)

[ngrome]

I'd get the heck out of Orlando if I could, but I have to wait til my kids finish high school first in a few years. I moved here over 10 years ago and saw the migration and urban sprawl. Unfortunately, the infrastructure could not support it. Traffic sucks and people drive like idiots. I guess they never heard of a turn signal or proper distance between cars, let alone a safe driving speed. Why are people in a rush to get to nowhere? People have gotten more rude, and though there is great diversity, the mix just isn't that good with the local natives and those who migrated over here who brought there NY or South FL mentally with them. I mean, they pull off to the side or block traffic to pick up and drop off people when they could just pull into a parking lot. Isn't that what the sunshine and supposedly lovely weather is about, so you can stroll and take your time?

Orlando thinks it's a big city when it's not. Don't even compare it to the likes of NY, Chicago, LA, even Boston or Seattle. What is there greatest body of water? Lake Eola or some pond in Disney World? LOL.

[Wilshire81182]

If you want to see some cool lakes, go to the Conway/Belle Isle area or the Butler chains of lakes. A lot of the lakes have homes on them, but they are nicer homes and kind of serene. There are also the lakes in Winter Park by Rollins and the boat tour goes through those lakes. Lake Eola is small, but it is in a built up area so they put a park there and worked with what they had. I like Loch Haven Park and the Greenwood wetlands, just west of the cemetary. There are some great green spaces to visit and hang out in.

[blueoktober]

Originally Posted by ngrome

I'd get the heck out of Orlando if I could, but I have to wait til my kids finish high school first in a few years. I moved here over 10 years ago and saw the migration and urban sprawl. Unfortunately, the infrastructure could not support it. Traffic sucks and people drive like idiots. I guess they never heard of a turn signal or proper distance between cars, let alone a safe driving speed. Why are people in a rush to get to nowhere? People have gotten more rude, and though there is great diversity, the mix just isn't that good with the local natives and those who migrated over here who brought there NY or South FL mentally with them. I mean, they pull off to the side or block traffic to pick up and drop off people when they could just pull into a parking lot. Isn't that what the sunshine and supposedly lovely weather is about, so you can stroll and take your time?

Orlando thinks it's a big city when it's not. Don't even compare it to the likes of NY, Chicago, LA, even Boston or Seattle. What is there greatest body of water? Lake Eola or some pond in Disney World? LOL.

Lakes in Chicago? You mean Lake Michigan? The one that is so polluted that you see fish with three eyes? Don't get me wrong, I love Chicago, but IL has no rivers or lakes. Good lord. This goes to show you have no idea what bodies of water are around here....are you aware of a little thing called the Atlantic Ocean? What about the St. Johns River? The Chain of Lakes?
Where, pray tell, is a lake in LA?

Traffic in Chicago is 10000000000000000 worse than in Orlando and so is the crime. Prices are tremendously higher and the cost of living is almost double.

The truth is, I didn't feel unsafe there either because I am not a Chicken Little. I walked home from bars at 3am weekly and never had any issue. I stopped and dropped off a rental truck at Cabrini Green around 11pm at night and didn't feel unsafe. I stopped off the skyway one day to get me some KFC on the south side and I didnt feel unsafe. I am not scared of black people. I am also street smart and know how to handle myself and not look like a victim.

If Orlando scares you - then you might have more issues than just leaving here could solve. Orlando is NOT a scary town - at all. Again, unless you are buying drugs at night on the west side you will most likely NEVER be a victim of a crime here.

[ngrome]

Originally Posted by blueoktober

Lakes in Chicago? You mean Lake Michigan? The one that is so polluted that you see fish with three eyes? Don't get me wrong, I love Chicago, but IL has no rivers or lakes. Good lord. This goes to show you have no idea what bodies of water are around here....are you aware of a little thing called the Atlantic Ocean? What about the St. Johns River? The Chain of Lakes?
Where, pray tell, is a lake in LA?

Traffic in Chicago is 10000000000000000 worse than in Orlando and so is the crime. Prices are tremendously higher and the cost of living is almost double.

The truth is, I didn't feel unsafe there either because I am not a Chicken Little. I walked home from bars at 3am weekly and never had any issue. I stopped and dropped off a rental truck at Cabrini Green around 11pm at night and didn't feel unsafe. I stopped off the skyway one day to get me some KFC on the south side and I didnt feel unsafe. I am not scared of black people. I am also street smart and know how to handle myself and not look like a victim.

If Orlando scares you - then you might have more issues than just leaving here could solve. Orlando is NOT a scary town - at all. Again, unless you are buying drugs at night on the west side you will most likely NEVER be a victim of a crime here.

Well, I guess that's the difference between you and me. I'm talking about a body of water. A big city is usually nearby it or up against it. I don't have to play in it, like, let's say the ocean. You still have to drive to the east coast to get to the Atlantic, and that's no longer Orlando, that's Cocoa and Titusville. Orlando is a little town trying to be like a big city that they'll never be. It will always be Disney's town.

Let me elaborate and talk about the surrounding suburbs. Metropolitan Chicago wins hands down. Orlando has nothing to compare. Orlando has no identity, no community unity, no great sports teams, no culture compared to Chicago or the other cities. Have you even compared the museums? Have you been to the Art Museum of both cities? Both Orlando and Chicago will have their bad spots, and there's no bad spot that is "better" than the other. Though traffic may be bad in Chicago, you don't have punks driving around risking the lives of others like they do in Orlando, idiots who want to go around racing each other on the street and street bikers thinking they can't get killed.

[Wilshire81182]

I think it is unfair to expect Orlando to compete with a city the cize of Chicago. Warmer climate cities always attract more outdoor recreation and tend to lack in the cultural department and I think you see that of most if not all of the cities in Florida and even much larger southern cities like Phoenix, Houston, and Atlanta have the same complaints to different degrees. I agree that drivers are a little crazy in Florida, but they also are in California and a lot of other warmer cities where there is less adverse weather. The city is taking steps in the right direction with red light cameras and sensors at intersections, and you and I can only take responsibility for our own actions and to be an example or catalyst in the change that you want to see. Community and identity can differ dramatically on where you live in the metro area and better sports teams and cultural venues will come with the growth that some are so opposed to. Like I have said several times, a lot of the crime and desperation comes from the current financial state of Orlando, Florida, and the country as a whole and I foresee Orlando more closely resembling what it used to be in the 90s on a bigger and better scale in the years to come. When budgets are in the red and jobs are not available, it is easy to see why this is happening right now. I think if you ask people across the country how they feel about their neighborhood, crime and the economy there are a lot of dismal outlooks right now. I feel wonderfully satisfied and very fortunate to still have my job in this economy and really do not have many complaints about Orlando in general.

[ConfusedInDFW]

Originally Posted by sandandwater

...Now if you look at the numbers there are actually more people leaving Central Florida then coming in. AWESOME!!! Take your crime and drugs and complaints and go back up north, west or I really don't care where. I can't wait until all these complainers can scrounge up some cash and get the heck out of here.

I agree with your post 99%, but I will bring up that (in my experience) the people moving out of Orlando do not resemble those moving in. I think your assertion is accurate describing the crippled emotional, educational and financial state of many (not all, of course) moving in, but the people I see leaving - or planning to leave - are actually the type of people any city would want to stay! Brain drain.

[DailyJournalist]

Originally Posted by ConfusedInDFW

I agree with your post 99%, but I will bring up that (in my experience) the people moving out of Orlando do not resemble those moving in. I think your assertion is accurate describing the crippled emotional, educational and financial state of many (not all, of course) moving in, but the people I see leaving - or planning to leave - are actually the type of people any city would want to stay! Brain drain.

This has been happening for many years in Orlando. The lack of employment opportunities and low wages is driving many professionals and blue collar workers to other cities.

[SinDonor]

Originally Posted by blueoktober

If Orlando scares you - then you might have more issues than just leaving here could solve. Orlando is NOT a scary town - at all. Again, unless you are buying drugs at night on the west side you will most likely NEVER be a victim of a crime here.

I guess you didn't read my other posts in this thread.

I have been shot at leaving my hockey rink at 9pm on a Thursday in St Cloud. I had a friend in Thornton Park who's house got broken into and robbed while she was in bed, hiding under her sheets (praying she didn't get raped as well). I had a good friend, who is a higher-up at Disney, and his girlfriend get shot at randomly while they were in their car leaving a Magic game (with a nice bullet hole in the passenger side head rest, almost killed the girlfriend). And for the finale, I had a teammate of mine from my hockey team spend a week in a coma (and a few months in phys-therapy) after getting beat down by 6 thugs in the Central Ave parking lot, eventhough the cops were 3 floors below.

This all happened within the last 3 years in the safe-haven you call Orlando. Keep dreaming if you think it's safer there than most cities. Stats don't lie. Orlando is in the top-10 most violent crime cities in the USA and it's getting worse every year. Most of the people leaving O-town are good people looking to get away and find better jobs near less crime. The scumbags are staying put.

[blueoktober]

Originally Posted by ngrome

Well, I guess that's the difference between you and me. I'm talking about a body of water. A big city is usually nearby it or up against it. I don't have to play in it, like, let's say the ocean. You still have to drive to the east coast to get to the Atlantic, and that's no longer Orlando, that's Cocoa and Titusville. Orlando is a little town trying to be like a big city that they'll never be. It will always be Disney's town.

Let me elaborate and talk about the surrounding suburbs. Metropolitan Chicago wins hands down. Orlando has nothing to compare. Orlando has no identity, no community unity, no great sports teams, no culture compared to Chicago or the other cities. Have you even compared the museums? Have you been to the Art Museum of both cities? Both Orlando and Chicago will have their bad spots, and there's no bad spot that is "better" than the other. Though traffic may be bad in Chicago, you don't have punks driving around risking the lives of others like they do in Orlando, idiots who want to go around racing each other on the street and street bikers thinking they can't get killed.

Have you been to Chicago? I lived there for 10 years and let me tell you about the traffic. While attending Columbia College downtown, I cannot tell you how many nights I couldnt take 290 back to the burbs because it had been shut down...why?....because there were people at the Forest Park L stop shooting randomly at cars and killing people.
One time I was with some friends driving downtown from Naperville to go to the Sony Store on Michigan Ave to pick up a friend for a birthday party. We had put balloons all over the car and even on the bumper. While sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, some thugs behind us started ramming into the back of the car popping the balloons!

I have seen people stop dead cold on 294 and back up an "on ramp"

I dont know where you get your information, and again, I LOVE CHICAGO (my fave place on Earth) but the traffic is much worse than it is here.

I went to the Field Museum of Art, The Art Institute, The museum of science and industry more times than I can count. You know what? It gets boring after about the third time. What else is there to see? Chicago has ethnic neighborhoods...yes...Orlando really doesnt. That doesnt make a city to me.
I used to take a bus at 5am in Naperville (from October to May it was usually freezing), get on a Metra, ride for an hour into the city, walk 6 blocks to a job in the sub zero weather. I would get to work at 9. I did the same in the evening although I had an express train and I would get home at 7PM. 5am to 7PM for a 9-5 job. $200 a month to do that. No thanks...my 15 minute commute from downtown to Altamonte works just fine.

I would go see concerts at the Chicago Theater and also up in Edgewater to the Vic.... I would go to the Opera and theatre quite a bit. Guess what? You can only do that so much. Chicago IS on a large body of water and the 6 months of the year that the water temp is above 40 degrees I would go to it sometimes. However, there are reports that can tell you just how polluted that lake is. It's horrible.

Comparing Chicago, a city that was built with an infrastructure to be a BIG CITY from the get-go to Orlando which was just about as big as Huntsville, AL 20 years ago is a stupid comparison. Orlando was never meant to be a city like that. So all of the people who fled down here to find paradise found that Orlando WASNT paradise. It was Orlando. But what happened was, prices went up, crime went up, sprawl went everywhere to accommodate all you new people and now you want to leave because you brought all the crap with you. LEAVE. I am not being rude here, but seriously, just leave. Leave it for the people that enjoy it. YOU made Orlando in your head a city that it never was....not the city itself. It isnt trying to be anything. It's just trying to accommodate all the thousands of people fleeing their states to come find a place that just didnt exist to begin with.

[ngrome]

Originally Posted by ConfusedInDFW

I agree with your post 99%, but I will bring up that (in my experience) the people moving out of Orlando do not resemble those moving in. I think your assertion is accurate describing the crippled emotional, educational and financial state of many (not all, of course) moving in, but the people I see leaving - or planning to leave - are actually the type of people any city would want to stay! Brain drain.

I would have to agree with your assessment, Confused. I've been here for over 10 years, a working, degreed, white collar professional. The local university is trying its best to expand the technological corridor by partnering up with local industries, but it's not happening fast enough. The cost of living down here shot up, but the salaries, just like the infrastructure, has not kept up with the growth. Imagine if NASA shut down it's operations permanently on the space coast?

What is the major industry down here? It boasts to be the hospitality center of the world. But are we paying these hard-working folks in the hospitality industry a fair wage? Please ask anyone at Disney, Universal, or other theme parks and hotels if they're working there because they love to or because they have to. Their work is seasonal, they get no hours if they're not needed, and they get worked like dogs at peak season, and some probably don't even get benefits.

As far as the people moving in, I've seen it first-hand. For lack of better term, a fortunate minority family from the Bronx moves down here in Orlando and slaps down $250K cash for a decent 4-bedroom home over 2000 sq. ft because they were able to sell some primo property or their brownstone up in NY for half a million dollars. So they buy their house, with enough cash left over to buy nice cars or laugh all the way to the bank. That will last them for a while until they need to find jobs for sustenance, but at least their home is paid for, and maybe they don't need to work. I don't blame them for the fortunate circumstance they got out of their home, but I don't think their kids, particularly their teenagers, appreciate what they got, and they have this attitude about them that some got about their parents, from the "me-first" to the "I'll take your parking spot just because" or "I own the road" mentality.